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For suggested phone numbers for confidential support and for a more detailed list of content warnings, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website. Pogo.com is an online gaming site that provides a platform for strangers and friends to gather together to play a variety of card and board games.
Users enter particular rooms to play the game of their choice and as they play, they can also chat by typing messages to other users. In April 2005, a user with the name Marine Sniper was playing blackjack in one of Pogo's rooms when he received a message from another player going by the name TallHotBlondBig50. TallHotBlond introduced herself as 18-year-old Jessie.
She then informed Marine Sniper that he was in the wrong place. The room they were in was for teenagers and Marine Sniper's profile clearly stated that he was 46 years old. Marine Sniper reassured Jesse that he wasn't in the wrong room. He was actually 18 like her, but he was using his father's account to play. That's why his profile had him as 46.
With that issue addressed and out of the way, TallHotBlond and Marine Sniper were free to keep messaging one another. It didn't take long for Marine Sniper to start sharing more information about himself with the Jesse. His real name was Tommy and he lived in upstate New York near the city of Buffalo. Tommy had big dreams.
He was set to join the Marines like his father and wanted to become the best and toughest version of himself he could be. Tommy hadn't always felt this way. He told Jesse that when he was 12 his mother died of cancer and after this he never felt love from another person again. After being betrayed by a couple of different people, Tommy gradually began to switch off his feelings and became a loner.
He sometimes thought about taking his own life, but directed his pain and self-hatred outwards instead. When he was 17, he raped a cheerleader from his high school. Tommy explained that he'd reached rock bottom and experienced a sense of total hopelessness. He'd found purpose by enlisting in the Marines and was getting ready to attend boot camp. In two months' time, Tommy would head to Parris Island in South Carolina to undertake his training.
Jesse wasn't totally horrified by Tommy's admission that he was a rapist. Instead, she felt compassion for what he'd been through and told him she was proud that he'd worked to better himself. She knew what it was like to feel a lack of direction. Jesse lived in the state of West Virginia in a small town called Oak Hill. Her life was fairly typical. She lived with her parents and younger brother, but often fought with her mum.
Jessie loved sports and played softball and basketball. For extra money, she worked part-time as a lifeguard. Jessie was in her final year of high school and getting ready to graduate. She was set to go to college but didn't really know what she wanted to do with her life. In Tommy, Jessie saw the chance for an exciting future. During their very first conversation, Jessie sent Tommy some bikini-clad photos of herself.
Just as her pogo username implied, she was tall and athletic with tanned skin and long blonde hair. More pictures soon followed. There were glamour shots that had been taken by professional photographers, as well as more relaxed, candid photos of Jessie playing sports. Jessie began making photo slideshows for Tommy set to backgrounds of romantic power ballads such as Aerosmith's "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing".
Jesse was curious to know what Tommy looked like. He described himself as 6 foot tall and muscular with big shoulders. Jesse was pleased by this. She liked big shoulders. Eventually, Tommy sent Jesse a photo of himself wearing his cadet uniform and a stern expression. Jesse thought he looked handsome. As the days went by, Jesse and Tommy chatted more and more.
They communicated by instant message on Pogo as well as via email and Yahoo. Eventually, the two exchanged phone numbers and began talking over the phone as well. When Tommy headed to South Carolina for boot camp, his time became somewhat limited, but he always made time to talk with Jessie. It wasn't long before the two teenagers declared their love for each other. Their conversations became racier and they engaged in cyber sex.
Tommy told Jesse that he'd gotten a tattoo on his arm in honor of their relationship. It featured the words "always" and "forever" alongside a heart with Jesse's name inside. "Always" and "forever" was both a nod to the Marines' motto, Semper Fidelis, and a special saying that Tommy and Jesse used to refer to their love.
After Tommy's boot camp training was complete, he received word that he was being deployed to fight in the Iraq War, which the United States had initiated more than two years earlier. He told Jessie that his internet access would be restricted during this time. If she needed to reach him urgently while he was out on a dangerous mission or wanted to send him a care package, she could do so via his father, Tom Senior.
Tom Sr.'s marine contacts meant he could get packages delivered to Iraq faster than the US Postal Service. Jesse sent Tom Sr. letters and photographs, which he forwarded to his son. But being far away from Jesse and unable to see her in person ignited Tommy's jealous streak. He accused her of flirting with other men from their gaming community and sending them pictures. This led to the young couple's first argument.
Eager for them to make up, Jessie sent Tommy a special parcel that included a necklace with a pendant in the shape of half a heart. She kept the other half for herself. Jessie also included a pair of her underwear. Tommy got over their brief argument, but his father didn't. Tom Sr didn't agree with Tommy and Jessie's relationship.
He discouraged Jesse from pursuing his son any further, telling her he would no longer relay any messages between the couple. He thought the relationship should end and told Jesse, quote, You will hurt him, and he's an idiot and will believe your lying ass. Jesse wasn't dissuaded. She continued contacting Tommy, telling him she was worried about his safety while he was fighting in Iraq. In one message, she wrote, quote,
"I know you're being careful, honey, and you have the best with you, but I also know anything can happen." Tommy kept replying to Jesse, reassuring her and saying she was the best thing that ever happened to him. He also told her about the battles he was fighting in the Iraqi city of Fallujah. As December rolled around, the couple had been in contact for roughly eight months. At Christmas, Tommy surprised Jesse by proposing to her. She accepted.
To mark their engagement, Tommy sent Jessie some red poinsettias, flowers that are popular at Christmas time. Jessie mailed Tommy another care package with more of her underwear, as well as dog tags engraved with the words: "Tom and Jessie, always and forever." The couple agreed to marry when Tommy returned home from Iraq. Jessie wrote excitedly about how she would take Tommy's last name, which was Montgomery,
She also imagined what their wedding night would be like. In their communications to each other, they talked about how their future together would be incredibly bright. Two months later in February 2006, Jessie received an envelope in the mail. Inside was what appeared to be a family photograph taken in a professional studio. A middle-aged woman with shoulder-length dark blonde hair stood in the center,
Sitting behind her was a middle-aged boarding man wearing glasses. On either side of the couple stood two girls who looked to be in their early to mid-teens. Along with the photo was a handwritten letter. It opened with the words: "Jesse, enclosed you will find a picture of my family. Let me introduce you to these people. The man in the center is Tom, my husband."
The writer explained that her name was Cindy Montgomery and she was the woman in the picture. The two girls were their daughters, who were aged 12 and 14. Cindy explained that she and Tom didn't have any sons. Tommy, the young cadet Jesse had been having a relationship with for almost a year, didn't exist. Jesse had been speaking to 46-year-old Tom the entire time.
Cindy had uncovered the ruse when she stumbled across some of Jesse's letters to Tommy, which Tom had stashed away. Cindy was concerned for the young woman and decided to let her know what had been going on. She closed her letter with the following message: "From what I am pulling from your letters, you are much closer to my daughter's age than mine, let alone Tom's. Are you over the age of 18? In this alone, he can be prosecuted as a child predator.
He is taking advantage of you. You need to be much more cautious with your safety. You will only be hurt by a man who has mastered the art of manipulation and lies. Do not trust words on a computer. Casefile will be back shortly. Thank you for supporting us by listening to this episode's sponsors. Thank you for listening to this episode's ads. By supporting our sponsors, you support Casefile to continue to deliver quality content.
As a young man in the 1970s, Tom Montgomery had enlisted in the Marines but he never saw active combat. By the time he was discharged, he'd developed a drinking problem. When he married Cindy and had his first daughter, Montgomery found the motivation he needed to address his addiction. A few years later, he and Cindy welcomed their second child.
Tom Montgomery became a dedicated father who volunteered with his daughter's swimming club and taught Sunday school at the family's church. He provided for his family by working as a machinist at Dynabraid, a power tool company with headquarters in the New York town of Clarence. The job didn't engage him in the same way that the military did, but he made a go of it and became friends with some of his co-workers. Over the years, Montgomery began to struggle again.
He had difficulties with erectile dysfunction and his marriage suffered both physically and emotionally. Communication between him and Cindy dropped to an all-time low and Montgomery sought refuge on the internet. He spent countless hours in online gaming rooms, playing games and chatting with strangers, as it was easier confiding in people he didn't know via words on a screen.
Montgomery was careful not to share any information about his wife and daughters, but he opened up about some of his problems with the other gamers he met. The first time Jesse reached out to him in Pogo's blackjack room, Montgomery was enticed by the thought of an attractive young woman. But when Jesse asked why he was in a room for kids when his profile listed him as 46, Montgomery panicked.
He'd heard about sting operations where undercover agents infiltrated online spaces looking for sexual predators. Acting on impulse, Montgomery lied to Jessie, telling her he was 18 and using his dad's account. When Jessie sent him photos of herself wearing swimsuits, he was entranced. He began concocting the character of Tommy so he could keep talking with her.
Montgomery made up stories about Tommy's past and gave his alter ego a troubled background to help win Jesse's sympathy. The photo he'd sent her was actually a 30-year-old photo of Montgomery in his own Marines uniform. As time passed, Montgomery battled with whether or not he should put a stop to these antics. He created the personality of Tommy's father to maintain contact with the Jesse, even when Tommy was supposedly on dangerous missions with the Marines.
But he also used this persona to try to break things off between the teenagers. Ultimately, it didn't work. His obsession with his fantasy life was too strong. Cindy Montgomery noticed her husband's fixation with the internet. He would kick their daughters off the computer so he could use it himself and then stay up typing well into the night. The truth was exposed in February 2006 when Cindy stumbled across a parcel Jesse had sent her husband.
Inside was a ladder and some red underwear that clearly belonged to a teenage girl. Cindy was disgusted and horrified to learn what Montgomery had done. Not only was he lying to her and their children, he was also manipulating an 18-year-old. Cindy confronted her husband and the couple agreed to divorce. In the meantime, Montgomery would move into the basement.
Cindy was disturbed by the thought that Jesse was blissfully unaware that her young fiancé was actually a middle-aged man. As a mother to young girls herself, she felt she had to do something. Cindy wrote a letter to Jesse and posted it to the return address listed on the parcel, exposing all of Tom Montgomery's lies. After Jesse read the letter, she immediately sent Montgomery an angry text message telling him he should be in jail.
The pair then met in a private chat room. Jesse was furious and hurt. She asked Montgomery why he'd done what he did. Montgomery couldn't provide a satisfactory answer. He said he wished he could explain it, but he didn't have any answers. He'd planned to kill Tommy off by saying he'd died during combat in Iraq, but Cindy had discovered his secret before he had the chance. Jesse didn't know what to think.
She decided to reach out to a third party who might be able to shed some light on the situation. Jessie recalled that Montgomery had mentioned a friend of his named Brian who was also active on Pogo. She even remembered Brian's username: Beefcake1572. 22-year-old Brian Barrett was a college student who worked part-time with Tom Montgomery at Dynabraid to pay for his tuition.
He still lived at home with his parents and 15-year-old brother. Every weekday, Brian got up at 6:30am, spent the day at college, and then headed straight to Diner Braid for an evening shift that finished at 10pm. Jesse sent Brian a message telling him what Montgomery had done. Brian was shocked by his co-workers' actions and provided Jesse with a sympathetic ear. The two began messaging each other often, growing closer and closer.
Jesse was just Brian's type. Not only was he attracted to blondes, he'd played football and baseball in school and he found Jesse's athleticism very appealing. Just as she'd done with Tommy, Jesse sent Brian photos of herself and handwritten cards telling him how much he meant to her. It wasn't long before the two declared their love for one another. The pair also bonded over their disgust at Tom Montgomery.
They went into the online chat rooms he frequented and told others what he'd done, calling him a loser and a predator. As a result, Montgomery was temporarily suspended from playing on Pogo. Jessie also shared her login details with Brian so that he could use her account to pose as her and send Montgomery mocking messages. Jessie and Brian decided that Montgomery's colleagues needed to know about this incident as well.
They debated how Brian should tell them, with Brian asking Jesse, "What should I say?" "Up to you, baby," she replied. "I have to fuck with him," Brian typed back. "You are so bad," Jesse answered. Brian told people at Dynabraid what Montgomery had been up to and left printouts of Montgomery and Jesse's conversations lying around the factory.
Montgomery's colleagues were aware he'd been flirting with a much younger woman as he'd been bragging about his relationship with Jessie for months, but they didn't know that he'd been lying and posing as a teenager. The fallout was swift. A furious Montgomery sent Jessie a private message, letting her know that because of her and Brian's actions, many of his co-workers thought he was a sexual predator. People no longer trusted him to be around their kids.
As far as Tom Montgomery was concerned, his life had been destroyed. Montgomery told both Brian and Jessie to leave him alone. He would no longer talk to Brian online or when they crossed paths at work. When Brian told other colleagues that he hoped to drive down to West Virginia to meet up with Jessie, the news made its way back to Montgomery. This upset him even more.
He knew that Jessie was a virgin and he was fixated with the idea of being her first. Now it sounded like she was planning to have sex with Brian. But Jessie wasn't done with Tom Montgomery. After two weeks of silence, she began messaging him again, saying that she missed the Tommy alter ego. Jessie explained that she had truly fallen in love with the 18-year-old marine sniper she'd believed was real.
She'd never felt the same way about Brian and had only really flirted with him to get revenge against Montgomery. The revelation that Tommy never existed had left her in despair and unable to believe in true love. She believed, quote: "If he existed, I would still be holding him every night and sharing dreams with him every night." Tom Montgomery found himself drawn back in.
He alternated between making hostile digs about Jessie's relationship with Brian and apologising for having lied to her. Jessie asked if they could be friends. Montgomery was her only connection to Tommy, whom she still loved. Montgomery admitted he missed Tommy too, typing: "I still feel Tommy in my heart." He added that he'd never stopped caring for Jessie. The two agreed to start over as friends.
The new friendship was fragile and fraught with issues from the get-go. For starters, it was clear that Montgomery still wanted a romantic relationship with Jessie. During their long, late-night chat sessions, he sent her self-pitying messages about how he wanted more than she could give. Whenever he caught wind of Jessie's online friendships with other men, Montgomery's sweet tone switched in an instant.
He'd send Jesse a barrage of angry messages, calling her a whore and using racial slurs as he described how he hoped she would be raped by black men. Montgomery stalked Jesse's account on the social media networking site Myspace and grilled her about who she'd been talking to. He reserved a large portion of his rage for his colleague, Brian Barrett. Montgomery told Jesse, "'I hate him with a passion, and for ten cents I would eliminate him.'
Jesse replied, "That's a little drastic, isn't it?" Montgomery responded, "Payback is a motherfucker, Jesse. I am the ultimate weapon. I am a Marine. Brian will pay in blood." Montgomery also had a confession for Jesse. After Brian outed his catfishing of Jesse to their colleagues, Montgomery had seriously considered shooting him. Despite these threats and admissions, Jesse said nothing to Brian or the police.
Instead, she merely promised Montgomery that she wouldn't talk to Brian again. Over the following few months, Jesse and Montgomery's relationship fell into a toxic pattern. Sometimes they'd get along and even engage in roleplay where Montgomery pretended to be Tommy again, during which they'd engage in cybersex. At the same time, Jesse continued to message other men.
Montgomery found out about this through their online community and was riddled with jealousy. He sent Jessie abusive messages, threatening to publish her address online. Eventually, Montgomery told Jessie that if she didn't leave him alone, he'd travel to West Virginia and physically hurt her. He also made a veiled threat against Jessie's mother. Jessie backed off, but only for a while.
She soon reached out again, explaining to Montgomery that her mother Mary wanted to speak to him. Mary then contacted Montgomery and demanded he stay away from her daughter. Montgomery agreed, but told Mary he also wanted Jesse to stay away from him. A couple of weeks went by before Jesse sent Montgomery another message. He pointed out that her mother had forbidden her from speaking to him. But Jesse shrugged it off, writing:
Well, she'll never know. Jessie had promised Montgomery she was no longer speaking to Brian Barrett, but in September 2006 Montgomery was looking at Jessie's MySpace page when he noticed something enraging. Brian Barrett was listed as one of her friends and the two had been messaging each other there. Montgomery confronted Jessie, asking if she and Brian were back together. "I can handle you with anyone but him," he messaged.
Jesse insisted that the two weren't together but had just talked. But there was someone else. Jesse had met a new guy who went by the nickname Shake and she thought the two of them had something special. Montgomery didn't believe her. He was convinced that Shake was actually Brian and that the two were in a romantic relationship.
Montgomery also believed that Brian had plans to drive down to West Virginia in two months' time to spend Thanksgiving with Jessie. You better be very afraid now, he warned. I told you what would happen if you and Brian got together. At around midnight on Wednesday September 13 2006, Jessie and Montgomery began chatting online.
Jessie repeatedly insisted that Shake and Brian were not the same person and asked Montgomery to leave her alone. She told him, I'm asking you to love me enough to let me go. Jessie announced that she was going to delete her accounts on Pogo and Yahoo before signing off with one final message. I love you and will miss you, Tom. Goodbye, baby. I'm leaving now.
At 1:36am Montgomery replied, quote: "Run to Brian you cock whore. He is waiting for you." Four hours later Montgomery checked back online to see if Jessie had indeed deleted her profiles. She hadn't. He sent her several abusive messages calling her a liar. Then he messaged Brian, stating: "Your girlfriend is just like you, nothing but lies. Keep her the fuck away from me."
You wanted her. You got her.
On the morning of Sunday September 17 2006, Brian Barrett's parents and younger brother walked through the door of their home in Lockport, New York and immediately knew something was wrong. The trio had spent the weekend camping with some family friends while 22-year-old Brian stayed at home. But there was no sign of Brian anywhere and it was clear that the family's cats hadn't been fed in a couple of days.
This was completely unlike Brian, who was typically reliable and responsible. Even if he'd planned to go out, he would have made sure to feed the pets. Roughly an hour later, there was a knock at the front door. When Brian's father Daniel Barrett went to answer it, he saw officers from the local police department standing there. Realising something must have happened to his son, Daniel immediately began to scream.
About 36 hours earlier at 10:16pm on Friday September 15, Brian Barrett finished his shift at Dynabraid. He punched out and headed towards his white Ford Ranger truck which was parked near the back of the employee parking lot. He climbed behind the wheel and was preparing to leave when the sharp sound of gunshots pierced the night air. The driver's side window was shot at three times, shattering the glass.
One of the bullets landed in Brian's upper left arm, while the other two went into his neck. He slumped over towards the passenger seat, dead. Because Brian's family was away and no one was at the Dynabraid factory over the weekend, it took two days before his body was discovered. Detectives found witnesses who'd heard the gunshots and seen an individual dressed in camouflage and a ski mask lurking in the area.
This, along with Brian's timecard, helped narrow down the time of the murder. The killer had used a .30 caliber carbine rifle, but there was no sign of the spent shell casings. The only clues recovered were a gun clip with what appeared to be dog hairs on it and a peach pit which was found lying nearby. To police, the crime looked like a sniper-style shooting. Brian's family members couldn't imagine who would want to harm the 22-year-old.
Brian was a happy-go-lucky, well-liked young man with no known enemies. But his co-workers told police about the bizarre online love triangle involving Brian, Tom Montgomery, and an 18-year-old girl. They said that not only had Montgomery been bad-mouthing Brian for months, he'd recently made some disturbing comments.
According to one colleague, Montgomery said that if he ever killed someone, he'd use an M1A1 military rifle and wouldn't be stupid enough to leave any shell casings lying around. This was significant given that the bullets found in Brian's body matched this type of rifle. According to the colleague, Montgomery had also made inquiries about what time Brian's shifts ended.
Investigators were eager to speak to Tom Montgomery for themselves, but they couldn't track him down. They began to worry that perhaps Montgomery had left the state to take revenge against Jesse as well. Using a number saved in Brian's cell phone, officers were able to reach Jesse. She was safe and well.
Jessie confirmed that she'd been involved with both Brian Barrett and Tom Montgomery and that she'd been increasingly concerned about Montgomery's erratic behavior. According to Jessie, Brian told her that Montgomery had tried to hit him with his car in their work parking lot on several occasions. He never spoke or made eye contact, just sat behind the wheel with a stony expression on his face.
When Jesse warned Brian that Montgomery was making violent threats against him, Brian asked if he should report this to his boss or another coworker. Jesse didn't directly reply, instead saying she was very scared of Montgomery. Brian replied: "Yeah, me too. He's crazy." The last Jesse had heard from Tom Montgomery was on Friday September 15.
Having finally cut ties with him two days prior, Montgomery had continued to message her, saying things like: "Hey whore, you suck your boyfriend Brian's cock today." Jessie never replied. Early on Friday morning she awoke to the sound of her cell phone ringing. Tom Montgomery was on the other line, screaming obscenities in a wild rage.
Jesse hung up on him, but he'd reached out again later that night, about an hour and a half after Brian Barrett was killed. Jesse received an online message from Montgomery asking, You waiting for your boyfriend? Just over two hours later, he tried again, typing, Come on, Brian won't mind you talking to me. Or are you talking to your boyfriend here? Officers in New York were worried that Jesse might be in danger,
They contacted the police in West Virginia and asked them to visit Jesse at home. At around 6:00 a.m., Officer Lee Kirk and his partner arrived at the address Jesse provided. It was a white house with peeling paint in the small town of Oak Hill. A short, middle-aged woman with a bobbed haircut answered the door. She identified herself as 45-year-old Mary Sheeler. The officers asked if anyone named Jesse lived at the home.
Mary replied that her daughter Jessie no longer resided there as she was away at college. Officer Kirk reported this back to the police in New York, who told him they'd spoken with Jessie just hours earlier and she'd told them she was at home. Officer Kirk returned to the house and asked Mary if Jessie had been home recently. Mary said no. She didn't have a phone number for Jessie either. Officer Kirk found this hard to believe.
He told Mary they were concerned that her daughter could be in danger and they needed to talk to her right away. Mary looked nervous. Officer Kirk could tell something was bothering her. As he continued to press her for information, Mary began to cry. "I'm Jessie," she said. "I've been using my daughter's name on the internet.
As Mary Sheila would later explain in an interview with Wired Magazine, she claimed to have signed up for an account on Pogo to play games as a way of relaxing. It was only after paying a fee for a premium service that she realised she'd inadvertently used Jesse's name and details and was therefore directed to the site's room for teenagers. Mary said she was happily married to her husband and had no romantic feelings for anyone else.
She'd only started talking to Tom Montgomery's alter ego of Tommy because Tommy seemed troubled and in need of care. Mary offered no explanation for why she'd sent him photos of her daughter wearing a bikini, engaged in cybersex with him, or agreed to marry him. After learning from Cindy Montgomery that Tommy wasn't real, Mary said she became concerned that Montgomery might be talking to other young women online.
She therefore decided to keep communicating with him as a way to distract him from other girls. As his temper flared and he became increasingly jealous, Mary continued speaking to him out of fear he might harm himself or others if she didn't. Mary said she'd never had feelings for Brian Barrett either. He was simply a sweet kid who started flirting with her, and she hadn't known what to do without exposing her true identity.
The investigators in New York who had been communicating with Jesse were stunned to learn about this revelation. Mary Sheila had sounded just like a teenage girl during their phone conversations. One detective was so disbelieving that he drove down to West Virginia to meet Mary for himself. There, Mary Sheila's computer was confiscated. By this point, she had been communicating with Tom Montgomery for roughly a year and a half.
On the computer, investigators found hundreds of images of Mary's daughter, Jessie, many which were clearly taken without Jessie's knowledge. Some photos focused on particular body parts and were taken from behind. In a video that Mary had clearly filmed without her daughter's knowledge or consent, she aimed the camera up Jessie's skirt. She then sent the footage to several individuals, asking, "Do you like it?"
It turned out that Mary had been talking to more men than just Tom Montgomery and Brian Barrett. She had sent photos of her daughter and pairs of Jesse's underwear to multiple online admirers. Jesse's MySpace page had actually been a fake maintained by Mary. Investigators also gained access to the chat logs between her, Tom Montgomery, and Brian Barrett.
Hundreds and hundreds of pages documented the countless hours Mary had spent talking with the two men. Montgomery's messages made it clear how much he'd hated Brian Barrett for becoming involved with Jesse. He'd made repeated threats against both Brian and Jesse's lives and it was clear he fantasized about committing violent acts. He talked about how he was a former Marine and knew how to assassinate people.
Investigators finally managed to track Tom Montgomery down. He hadn't gone down to seek revenge against Jesse after all, but was still in the Buffalo area and showed up for a shift at Diner Braid as normal. Detectives visited him at work and asked if he could accompany them for questioning. Montgomery agreed, but asked if he could go to his car to retrieve his lunch first. He explained that he'd brought peaches and didn't want them to spoil while left in the car.
Detectives took note of this, fully aware that a peach pit had been found at the scene of Brian Barrett's murder. Tom Montgomery denied any involvement in the crime. He said that on the night in question, he'd gone out to eat at a local restaurant. He'd arrived home sometime between 10pm and 10 past, at least six minutes before Brian was killed.
Montgomery's wife refuted this, saying he'd arrived home at least half an hour later than he claimed. Cell phone records also confirmed that Montgomery was in the vicinity of Dynabraid at this time. Testing of the peach pit left next to Brian's truck was tested for DNA. It came back a positive match for Tom Montgomery. A search warrant was obtained for the Montgomery family home.
On the computer, investigators recovered hundreds of pages of conversations between Jesse and Montgomery, as well as photos of Jesse. Lingerie that Mary Sheila had sent him while pretending to be Jesse was found stashed amongst Montgomery's belongings. Investigators also noted that the Montgomery family had a pet dog with fur that looked to match the dog hairs found on the gun clip recovered at the crime scene.
Montgomery owned several firearms, but there was no M1A1 rifle in his gun cabinet. However, investigators did find an interesting picture in one of the family albums. In one old photo of Cindy Montgomery, the gun cabinet was visible in the background, and there it was in the photograph - an M1A1 rifle. Montgomery's work items were also seized,
Tucked away in a toolbox, investigators found a note that he'd scribbled on Dynabraid's stationery. It read: "On January 2 2006, Tom Montgomery, 46 years old, ceases to exist and is replaced by an 18-year-old battle-scarred Marine. He is moving to West Virginia to be with the love of his life."
The note described how 18-year-old Tommy had a black belt in karate, $2.5 million in the bank, and looked like a red-headed Harrison Ford. It appeared to be some kind of attempt by Montgomery to manifest himself into an entirely different person. As detectives sat Tom Montgomery down for an interview, they revealed that the woman he'd killed Brian Barrett over wasn't who Montgomery thought she was.
She was a woman around his age who had been posing as her 18-year-old daughter. The blood drained from Montgomery's face. It was obvious that he was completely shocked. On November 27 2006, Tom Montgomery was charged with the murder of Brian Barrett and held in remand. In a recorded phone conversation to his wife Cindy from jail, Montgomery seemingly admitted that the gun clip found near Brian's truck was his.
He explained that the case had been covered in their dog's fur because his car was filthy. Yet, he also maintained that he hadn't killed Brian. According to Montgomery, Brian had been receiving phone calls at work from people who disliked him, and he believed one of these individuals must be responsible. Montgomery claimed he didn't mind when Jessie became involved with Brian. He was just happy that she'd found someone closer to her own age.
As Montgomery's trial date loomed, both Cindy and the couple's daughters cut all ties with him. Montgomery attempted to take his own life as a result, and his weight plummeted. Eventually, he agreed to plead guilty to first-degree manslaughter, wanting to spare his daughters from the ordeal of a criminal trial. During sentencing, the judge described the crime as, quote,
A totally senseless killing, the result of a non-existent relationship, a love triangle between three people who did not even know each other. Tom Montgomery was sentenced to 20 years in prison, making him eligible for parole in 2024 at the age of 65. In 2009, director Barbara Schroeder made a documentary about Brian Barrett's murder.
She called the film "Tall Hot Blonde" after Mary Sheila's online username. During an interview for the documentary, Tom Montgomery didn't express remorse for Brian's murder or even discuss the crime directly. Instead, he focused on his state of mind at the time and his relationship with Jessie. Montgomery said he never doubted that Jessie was anyone other than who she said she was.
This was partly because of the enormous number of photographs Mary Sheila had sent of her daughter. Montgomery believes his problems stemmed from seeking solace online instead of talking to his family about his issues. Rex Bieber, a clinical psychologist who appears in the documentary, has speculated that a part of Tom Montgomery truly believed in his fantasy life as Tommy.
This was evidenced by the note he wrote to himself about his imagined transformation into the 18-year-old Marine. When that fantasy was shattered, Montgomery saw himself as victimised. In an interview with the Daily Beast, Rex Bieber stated: "By breaking the fantasy and his ability to live in it, Mary was killing any hope he had to save himself. From a psychological perspective, she engaged in cyber homicide.
Mary Sheeler also spoke to Barbara Schroeder, but refused to be filmed or recorded. She told Barbara that all she ever wanted was to be a good mother. After her children grew up, she became bored and lonely, leading her to seek company online. She maintained that she'd only spoken to Tom Montgomery to prevent him from talking to real teenagers. Mary intended to write a book about the dangers of the internet.
Mary never apologized to her daughter Jessie or acknowledged that she'd done anything wrong. She never told her family about what she'd been doing, not even after police came to speak with her about Brian Barrett's murder. When she had to fly to New York to testify in front of Tom Montgomery's grand jury, she finally told her husband that she'd done something bad.
She said she'd been chatting online to two different men who worked together and one had become jealous and killed the other. Mary insisted there was nothing sexual or romantic to these conversations. It had just been chit chat about online games and the weather. The truth came out when some of Jesse's friends heard about the case and Jesse decided to google her mother's name.
The search returned news stories about Brian Barrett's murder roughly 400 miles away in upstate New York. Jessie was horrified to discover exactly what had happened and how her mother had used her identity. Not only had Jessie's photos been shared with numerous men, they were also splashed all over the internet in coverage of the case. Jessie told her father, who was equally distraught,
He divorced Mary and Jesse cut off all communication with her mother. Despite Mary Sheila's actions, she didn't technically commit any crimes and therefore cannot be charged in relation to Brian's murder. Tom Montgomery feels that Mary should be incarcerated for the role she played, as do Brian Barrett's parents. The Barretts have also advocated for laws requiring greater accountability online.
They remember their son as being shy and quiet, despite his tall stature and athletic build. At the time of his death, Brian was gaining confidence and discovering who he wanted to be. On weekends, he spent his time volunteering as a coach for a little league baseball team. Brian loved working with kids so much that he decided to become an industrial arts teacher, teaching students to work with wood and metal.
Brian's father, Daniel, has occasionally blamed himself for his son's death. It was Daniel who had found the advertisement for the job at Dynabraid and encouraged his son to apply. Daniel also worked in IT and was the reason the family had a computer and the internet at home. But ultimately, the Barretts know that those responsible for Brian's murder are the two middle-aged individuals who took their fantasies too far.
They believed that what might have saved their son was communication. If Mary Sheila or their son's co-workers had reported Tom Montgomery's death threats, then Brian might still be alive today.